Honestly, I think it is just human nature to feel pity and to hope that people will change for the better. I mean, their lives aren't even that great. Everyone assumes that money and fame would be utopia, but it isn't. That's why you see so many celebs turning to alcohol and drugs and sex to numb themselves and escape reality. Most average people have happier lives than celebrities, honestly. So, I do feel sympathy for them as human beings because they made a very bad deal. They traded eternal life for fame and money (but not real love or happiness -- that isn't part of the deal).
I think feeling sympathy for them just means that you haven't reached that level of cynicism where you see someone as beyond all point of redemption. I think they could redeem themselves if they ever publicly came out and told the truth about the industry and apologized for pushing agendas in exchange for fame. Do I think that is likely to happen? No. But, I still hope -- for their sake and the sake of the fans who blindly follow them -- that it will happen. And I will always pity those who will spend eternity separated from God. This brief speck of time we call life is not worth an eternity of suffering -- even if you get to live like a king. But that pity is tempered by anger that they are taking others down that path with them. I don't think you can separate out the pity from the anger, though. It is a mixture of both.
I get where you are coming from, its hard for most people not to be empathetic. I guess I am really a cynic person, but that is just because I think that they enjoy what they do, so there's that.
They are totally okay with being MKed as showed in IDOL, totally okay with skinship and gay ships (though they have reduced that in the last days), totally okay hanging out with celebs who are well known to be illuminati, totally okay to pose like children and attract pedophiles, totally okay with acting like dumb blondes, totally okay acting submissive.
Now...ofc the company has to do a lot with it, but the company can only go this far. They started off pretty nicely with the rebel concept, and to this day, that is still my all-time favorite. Whats there not to like about No More Dream though ? Fierce, full of youth, original and most importantly
RAW.
You cant see that now, and that is because they chose not to stay original, but to be slaves of the industry. Sometimes I think they were actually sold out way before their debut and the tough boy era was just a facade, but that is just a theory.
Anyways, they wanted more fame, hence they changed the concept, but that is not something I should feel sorry for. Its the path they chose and no one forced them to do it. I mean...look at Stray Kids, a tough rebel boy concept and still slaying it. They could have been that. But they chose not to.
Have you heard any of the songs in Map of the Soul Persona ? None, and I mean
none of the songs is actually worth listening to. Its just repetitive, watered-down cheesy pop. I could write better lyrics than that. The whole thing was so rushed and so incomplete, it just feels empty and lazy. But that is what they chose. They might as well have gone with the wholesome concepts like Fake Love or BS&T, but I feel like they were tired of working that hard for nothing. Armys wouldn't catch the meaning anyways. Hence the most generic mv and melody ever : Boy With Luv. Tada !
As much as we hate to admit it, they will never get back to their old eras. Their sound will keep getting worse each comeback (if they manage to have any) and that's it. There will still be listeners that like the genre, but that is not the case. That is their problem not ours, we need to face the reality that they are changing lanes cause they want to, not cause they are forced to.
